An emotional Carmelo Anthony announced that this was the last Olympics of his career, adding:

“Despite everything that’s going on in our country, we gotta be united.”

Anthony has said he wants to be a leader in the latter stage of his career, and he is clearly taking it seriously. Team USA may not need a 36-year old Anthony as a player in 2020, but they’ll miss his experience and emotion.

It was no secret that the U.S. struggled, or at least fell short of expectations in the group stage, but they played their best game of the tournament with the gold medal on the line.

When the U.S. doesn’t play its best, other international teams can threaten them. But when they’re clicking, there’s still not another country that can get close. It’s hard to take any other conclusion from a 30-point win in a gold medal game.

The U.S. has won gold. They’ll enter Tokyo in 2020 as the heavy favorites again.

The U.S. won’t get the record for biggest margin in a gold medal game. It also looks like they’ll be “held” under 100 points. If you knew that entering the game, you’d guess this one would be very close.

Serbia calls timeout after an alley-oop finish by DeMar DeRozan. I don’t know what exactly you say in a timeout at this point. Probably something like: “We had a good tournament. We’re going to win silver. Let’s end this with some pride.”

Kevin Durant and Jimmy Butler just dove on the floor for a loose ball. They don’t have to. In fact, considering this game is over and they’re worth tens of millions, they probably shouldn’t. But they still did. No one can say NBA players don’t care about these games or don’t try hard.

End of the 3rd quarter: USA 79-43 Serbia

Two more for Cousins on a monster dunk. He has 13 points and 14 boards. Meanwhile, Jokic has just 4 points and 3 boards on the heels of his big game earlier in the tournament versus the U.S. It’s not so much that the U.S. neutralized him, but that Serbia’s gameplan didn’t much include him. Strange.

Durant now has 28 points and Klay Thompson has 12. So a team featuring some of the best players in the NBA is getting 60% of its points from two Warriors in the gold medal game. And Steph Curry isn’t even in Brazil.

At the risk of losing liveblog readers, this game is over. (Please! Don’t go!) The U.S. isn’t letting off the gas. If anything, they’re playing better now than they did in the 2nd quarter. The defense is stifling and they’re making the extra pass on offense to get wide wide wide WIDE open shots.

The positive new for Serbia is that they’re less than 15 minutes away from a silver medal.

Serbia seems to have given up on the three-pointer. You can’t blame them, they’re just 3-for-18 from deep in the game. But to have any hope of coming back, they’re going to need to shoot (and hit) from three.

Serbia did not play well in the first half and the U.S. played its best basketball of the Rio Games. That’s the exact recipe for an underdog team losing in a blowout.

Sometimes stats are misleading, but this is not one of those times. The U.S. is shooting 44% from the field to Serbia’s 31% and dominating the boards, 31-16. Serbia has a huge advantage in fouls, turnovers and missed three-pointers, though. That’s ... something.

End of the 1st half: USA 52-29 Serbia

That second quarter performance by the U.S. was what many thought the team was capable of at the start of the tournament. After struggling at the start of the game, the U.S. closed the half on a 40-15 run.

More free throw action for DeMarcus Cousins. He then exits with 11 points and 12 rebounds. His big game is only being overshadowed by Durant, who now has 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Serbia is actually looking more confused on how to guard him as the game goes on.

Kyrie Irving hits two free throws. Kalinic now has four fouls and Raduljica has three. Serbia needs to make this game ugly and scrappy ... but they also need to have players left to play in the second half.

DeMarcus Cousins now has 7 points and 7 rebounds with 5 of his points from the line. Serbia is struggling to handle him inside and they’re racking up fouls try to. Three Serbian starters now have at least two fouls.

The U.S. takes its first lead on a lay-in by DeMarcus Cousins on a great feed from DeMar DeRozan. But then Cousins missed the free throw. The U.S. is now 4-for-8 from the line or as it’s sometimes called: “they’re a DeAndre.”

Kevin Durant needs to shoot more than he did the first time these two teams met, but his last two attempts have been long heaves from way behind the three-point line with time left on the shot clock. He’s now 1-for-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from three.

Long way to go, obviously, but remember that Serbia lost just 94-91 in the group stage ... and that was after trailing 9-0 at the start and being down as much as 22. Since then, Serbia is beating the U.S. by a score of 99-82.

Durant finishes a dunk after a steal. He is being active on the offensive end so far. In the first game against Serbia, he only put up four shots from the field. The U.S. needs its best player to be more involved in the biggest game.

It looks like the good Serbian team showed up so far in this one. However, the U.S. would really help itself by playing more deliberately on the offensive end. So far it’s had some ugly turnovers and unnecessary shots.

Serbia will need to be at their best today to have a chance to win. Obviously. But consistency has been a major problem so far in the Olympics.

The team only went 2-3 in the group stage, including a 15-point loss to Australia -- the same team they blew out in Friday’s semifinal game. This is a team that lost to France, almost lost to Croatia ... and almost beat Kevin Durant and the star-studded U.S. team.

For the sake of good entertainment, if nothing else, let’s hope the good Serbian team shows up today.

It will be interesting to see how Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Thibodeau and the U.S. coaching staff handles Serbian big man Nikola Jokic. He had 25 points on 11-of-15 shooting in the narrow 94-91 win in the group stage. DeAndre Jordan has made his career on defense, and he’ll need to show up big for the U.S. today.

The U.S. will try to win its third consecutive men’s gold while Serbia has an opportunity to best its lone men’s basketball medal: a silver from the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Serboa has an opportunity, however small. The U.S. team has looked beatable at times in Rio, but no team has completed the job. Serbia almost did it in the group stage, missing a three-pointer on their last possession to fall 94-91. They’re about to get one more shot.